MBA Geek

Customers are the life-blood of a business. Without customers, a business has no purpose, no income and no reason. And this is why organisations always try to understand their client base, figure out what drives them and how they can cater for their needs.

I came across a great example of this when visiting a website of a company called Chocolate and Love. They’re in the chocolate business; making and selling chocolates for a wide customer base. They offer a great service that lets them engage more closely with their clients called The Chocolate Club, whereby you sign up to receive different a supply of chocolate every month. Now, instead of having a very short relationship with the customer, where the experience at Point of Sale will govern the relationship between supplier and retailer; the retailer has an opportunity every month to satisfy and delight their customer. It’s a simple proposition, but one that helps stimulate the engagement.

We’ve tried some of the Chocolate and Love products, so if you’re interested, read our review on Shopaholic.

Some interesting facts and figures surrounding the current ash cloud crisis in Europe and the cost it is causing to business. Here are some numbers:

• British Airways: £15m to £20m a day in lost business
• TUI Travel: £5m to £6m a day
• IATA: Industry costs of up to £165m a day

Some of the numbers mentioned are staggering, but it does give an indication of what a devastating effect natural causes can have on a business. You can expect to insure against this sort of eventuality, but the premiums would be astronomical. And then bring to bear the human cost of what could happen once companies start failing and jobs are lost and you begin painting a really bleak picture. It may not be as bleak as the current mesothelioma survival rate, but it still pretty ugly.

Have you been affected by the volcanic ash?

Interesting post on Bloomberg about how the industry is intrigued by Twitter’s new ad serving strategy. The aspect that has people interested is the concept of “resonance”, i.e. using a metric based on how other people react to the advertisement. The interesting side of this is that popular adverts will get broadcast more, while as soon as people start losing interest in something, the ad will get dropped. The same concept would apply regardless of if you’re selling something as valuable as real estate; or something as spammy as diet pills; if the market reacts favourably to it, then the message will be reinforced by the network.

It’s an interesting concept and certainly adds something new to the game. The next few months will be quite interesting to watch.

Some great thoughts in David Rogers’ post titled 9 Themes from the BRITE ’10 Conference. I’ll leave you to read the entire post, but I just wanted to highlight the ideas that come from each of the themes he mentioned, just as thoughts to stimulate your brain.

• Stop thinking of customers as individuals. Start thinking of them as networks.
• No customer is statistically insignificant.
• Be the influencer.
• Lower the barriers to entry for customers, and raise your level of expectations.
• Shift from mindless to mindful consumption.
• True innovation balances emotional & functional design.
• Leverage untapped potential in your organization.
• Culture eats strategy for lunch.You are not in the business that you think you are in.

There are some massively awesome ideas in there and I urge you to read the post and learn more about BRITE if you find them interesting. Regardless of whether you’re out to win an election, or to produce the best atv on the market, these ideas can change your company or your personal future. Take heed!

You know, there are many things that can help market your product, but when the chief of the NSA calles it “wonderful” you know you’re on the right track. This is exactly what happened to Apple when Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, will will be leading the U.S. Cyber Command, went on record speaking highly about the iPad. When a company launches a new product they take a massive risk, and to get a high profile recommendation like that can be a very powerful tool.

It looks like the iPad launch actually went better than iPad planned, it looks like supplies are tight because they underestimated the US demand. The thing about a new product is that you can hardly turn the outdoor lighting on it and see how brightly it will shine. Things have to be kept under wraps while the product is being developed. When Apple announced the iPad, it was already being produced and the amounts to make would already have been agreed.

Still, they can always make more huh?

Here’s an interesting set of videos I came across that talk about a variety of subjects related to Social Media and their impact and effect on business today.

It’s been interesting to watch this subject develop, from the early days of blogging all the way through to today. Blogging opened up self-publishing to the masses and coupled with a cheap camcorder one could even start to produce videos. Business has had to come to terms with User Generated Content, the ability for consumers to air feelings and opinions openly and the wide proliferation of information. It’s been a fun journey so far, and we’re still at the beginning. I’m just happy to be riding the wave!